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Comment by OmicronCeti | Hacker News Reader

I think the disconnect here is between potential and probable. Humanity likely has the potential for interstellar travel, but our nature will prevent it in my opinion. Homo sapiens have twice come to the edge of nuclear oblivion already (being saved only by luck essentially), and I would wager we are are speeding much faster towards nuking each other than reaching the stars.

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If nuclear war breaks out, it will be sad, we will lose a lot of our population, and cities will be destroyed, but I do not think a nuclear breakout will result in the death of humanity. I cannot see a realistic war scenario in which we will destroy every habitable corner of the planet.

And if we can cure cancer in the next 50 years (I think realistic), we'll have even better odds of surviving an event, as a species.

The collapse of all plant life would mean the death of humans. Nuclear winter is a well-studied and modeled phenomenon.

I don't think we would collapse all plant life.

While we have the theoretical capability to destroy all plant life, I think realistically we'd end up obliterating a few cities before war would cease, and a full-on nuclear winter is unlikely.

> I don't think we would collapse all plant life.

I mean it's not really about what you think. See the top two links here about the devastating effects of small-scale conflicts

- https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00794-y

- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919049117

- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.222.4630.1283

- https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030509

- https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.1986.10423349

- https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD008235

You don’t need to kill all plants, just enough of those we can eat. Not even all of those, either. Look into history to see what happens when enough people don’t have enough to eat.

The person you are replying to has said he would not mind if all humanity were to die and go extinct. Ugh.

Why should I mind? Species come and go.

Then you shouldn’t mind people making use of Mars in the meantime. Planets come and go as well.

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